Hill farmers seek ‘fair deal’

CLOSE on 1,000 hill farmers across the Western Seaboard protested outside the offices of Ministers Simon Coveney and Jimmy Deenihan last Thursday in Dublin over losses they are facing in the gap year of 2014 before the new CAP comes into play in 2015.

The farmers are seeking a roll-over of the Duchas compensation scheme through 2014 and also want the dropping of the ‘collective agreement’ clause for commonage farmers to qualify for the new GLAS environmental scheme.

Farm leaders met with both Agriculture Minister, Simon Coveney and Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister, Jimmy Deenihan, in Dublin last week after refusing to leave the offices until they got a commitment for the meeting.

Connacht IFA Region Chairman, Brendan Joyce told the Farming Tribune, that they were seeking the roll-over of the Dúchas scheme to compensate farmers for the environmental measures that they were carrying through in 2014.

“One of the basic principles of getting farmers to put in place various environmental measures was that they would be compensated. Farmers just cannot be left in the lurch through this year without any payments,” said Brendan Joyce.

He said that the collective agreement clause for commonage farmers to get into the new GLAS scheme was completely unworkable and needed to be withdrawn immediately.

“This was never in the REPS or AEOS scheme and it is not a requirement of the EU. This is something clearly within the remit of the Ministe to change and we want him to do so immediately,” said Brendan Joyce.

He said that they were also seeking a restoration of the €150 per hectare payment rate for the GLAS scheme from its current level of €75 per hectare.

“We have a further meeting with the Minister on July 1 but it is critical that these changes are now made before we submit our final plan to the EU Commission on July 26.

“These changes require a relatively small amount of money to implement but they will have major implications for hill farmers, and other farmers in restricted areas, over the coming five to six years,” said Brendan Joyce.

Connacht IFA Chairman, Tom Turley said that farmers in areas like the Shannon Callows, the Slieve Aughties and other sensitive regions were also seriously affected by environmental restrictions.

“The whole principle agreed a number of years back was that where farmers were caught up by environmental restrictions they would receive adequate annual compensation.

“This is a very basic principle of the whole EU strategy in environmentally sensitive areas and must be followed through on by the Irish Government,” said Tom Turley.